HOW TO GO VIRAL ON INSTAGRAM REELS USING INSTAGRAM REELS HASHTAG
Instagram has over the years continued to increase its user experience with new updates, and on the 15th of August, 2020, they introduced the Instagram reels. According to Instagram, the Instagram reels hashtags featured in the explore offer their users the opportunity to become a creator on Instagram and reach a wider audience on the global stage. As an Instagram user, reels are the best place to get yourself, your product, or your brand to a new and larger audience by being creative with videos and texts.
What is Instagram reels?
The reels feature was created for Instagram users to create short videos, add sounds and effects and share them as a post. It is widely believed to be a replica of the Chinese-owned Tiktok due to its similar features.
The Instagram reels icon is located just below the camera icon. When you click on it, you will see a variety of creative editing tools on the left side of your screen. These editing tools will help you create your reel and edit it to your satisfaction. With Instagram reels, you can either search for a song of your choice from the Instagram playlist or you can create your audio and receive credits whenever anyone uses it. You can also save this audio and reuse it anytime you want to create another reel.
Features of Instagram reels when compared to TikTok
image source:
https://images.app.goo.gl/c1ZwqczsByaUp7gH9
When TikTok’s popularity soared in 2020 by gathering an average of 800 million monthly subscribers, it was believed that Instagram responded with the reels. A recent comparison shows that both apps allow their users or creators to add music from their audio libraries or existing music collections. Also, they both have a similar feed scroll where videos of varied interests are lined up for users’ view and engagement.
Interestingly, the two apps have coincidentally forgotten to add an auto-scroll feature. So that when you’re done watching a video, you have to manually scroll up or down for the next video to play.
There are numerous features available on reels, including AR effects created by both Instagram and authorized creators across the globe. These AR effects can be used to add beautification and coloration to your media. They include Motion, lowlights, and cherry among others. In addition to this, Instagram reels offer you, the creator, the option of fastening or slowing a video (mostly) to correlate with the background sound before uploading on your feeds.
Benefits of the Instagram reels hashtag
Hashtags are a great tool to expand your reach and increase engagement on almost all social media platforms.
This is how it works
When you use the right hashtags, your content will reach the right audience and you’ll get a lot of engagements. It also helps to increase brand awareness and affinity and generates much-needed traffic. Another benefit of Instagram reels hashtags is that it helps to communicate and promote your brand’s values. With branded hashtags, you can gear your fans to inspire new campaign hashtags and track a promotional post.
How to find the most suitable hashtags for your Instagram reels
To attract people to your page and not get your posts muddled up among numerous posts, you should use hashtags that have under 200k to 500k posts. This you can determine by typing the hashtag in the search bar and checking the number of posts that appear. You might also want to gauge the engagement level of those hashtags.
Another way to find relevant hashtags is to be on the lookout for popular hashtags that are used by popular individuals or top brands. By using those hashtags, your reels will get the attention and traffic that those big brands generate. Some of these hashtags include #TBT, #instagood, #nofilter, and so on.
Note: You can use third-party Instagram analytics or discovery platforms to get trending hashtags to increase the reach of your target audience.
In your search for relevant hashtags, remember to use or create only hashtags or abbreviations whose meanings are understandable and uncontroversial. For instance, people might take offense to the #GeTFo and term your brand vulgar for using a hashtag that means “Get The Fuck Out”.
Examples of ten most popular Instagram reels hashtag
The ten most popular Instagram reels hashtag as compiled by best-hashtags includes a list of popularly visited hashtags and the frequency of their usage in percentage over a period of time. Some of them include:
#reels – 45%
#instagram – 9%
#love – 8%
#reelsinstagram – 6%
#tiktok – 6%
#instagood – 5%
#trending – 4%
#follow – 4%
#like – 4%
#explore – 4%
As a brand or individual, the use of too many hashtags and/or popular ones can sometimes be a bad marketing strategy. This is because some of these trending hashtags are related to divisive social or political connotations, and it might lead to a negative brand image if your post is grouped with such posts. Not only this, the use of several hashtags might make Instagram mark your posts as spam.
Other methods + Instagram reels hashtags to go viral on the reels
Hashtags go a long way in making your content go viral but they are not enough. You need to add more details and use some other important techniques to get your reels to a wider audience. Some of these methods are highlighted below:
Hooking introduction
The hook refers to that part of a reel that will spark interest in viewers and arouse their curiosity to keep watching till the end. Your hook might be something that looks or sounds interesting or shocking to the viewer, this way, the viewer will be curious to watch the reels to the end. And if your content is valuable it will get likes and engagements.
Here is an example of a hooking introduction: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CJ1hQmgJEPK/?utm_medium=copy_link
Include text
When you’re making your Reels, you need to add some text that sums up the value and purpose of the video, mostly in the form of a subtitle. By adding this text and placing it in the beginning and/or the middle of your video, you are sending information to the viewer on the content of the video. When you combine this technique with the hashtag, your reels would be seen by a wider audience and garner enough engagements.
In the reels video below the robot influencer, Lil Miquela, used texts to tell her audience how much she rates her cousin robot.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CPCGZW9hhZN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link,
Publish at peak view times
It is believed that the best time to post on your Instagram page is between Wednesday at 11 am and Friday at 11 am. Mid-week blues make Wednesday the best time to post anything. During these times, a lot of users are online. So, you are more likely to catch the attention of random users by combining your hashtags and posting at this peak time.
Specific niche
A. niche is a term used to describe a topic. Niches are generally amplified by one or more hashtags that bring together similar content relating to that particular topic. There are numerous niches in Instagram such as fashion, food, lifestyle, pets/ animals among others. Having a specific niche and making your reels about that topic drags the attention of a specific audience type and heightens engagement.
Add a call to action button
Making an Instagram reel without a call to action won’t hinder your post from going viral and achieving the purpose of its creation. Call to action are usually catchy, irresistible, and are placed strategically. A call to action should either redirect your target audience to your profile page, your website, access to other products or reels, joining an email list, adding an item to a shopping cart, or any other purpose that the reel was created to serve.
For instance, this reels video below by Ralph Lauren, a fashion brand, is calling on its customers to make use of the Brand’s bitmoji on Snapchat so as to reckon with them and promote awareness for their brand.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CDjeP3oBEpF/?utm_medium=copy_link
Ensure that your CTA can be easily discovered. You can do this by using bright and attractive colors, large and bold text format, or other recognizable methods. Examples of popular CTA are “sign up for free”, “swipe up to see more”, “click here for free trial” and a host of others.
Conclusion
There are 1.074 billion Instagram users with different interests, ideas, and objectives ranging from fashion, culinary/ food, festivals, dance, travel, and even research. So, to sieve through this gazillion of users and deliver your content to people that have an interest in it, you have to use relevant hashtags. Remember that consistency and having the necessary skills, tools, and information are key in building your brand/page and making it go viral using the Instagram reels hashtag.
